Ballpark Changes
in the Majors
 Recap
of changes for the 2001 season . . .
PITTSBURGH The Pirates
new home is PNC Park, which was named Best New Major League Park for 2001
by BASEBALLPARKS.COM™ (click here to go to
our special page with additional photos and observations). The park is
located right along the Allegheny River, just upstream from the site of
now-demolished Three Rivers
Stadium. PNC Park features just 38,000 seats, and because there are only two decks
-- the first
Major League park to be built this way in the past half century -- the last row
of the upper deck is only 88 feet above the level of the field. The most noteworthy
aspect of the park (aside from its beautiful beige-limestone exterior) is
the spectacular view of the river, downtown Pittsburgh and lovely Mount
Washington beyond. This photo was taken at twilight from the concourse
behind home plate. HOK is the
architectural firm for this beautiful new park . . .  MILWAUKEE
Miller Park was officially opened on April 6 as the Brewers faced the
Reds. The Nation's First Fan, President Bush, was on hand to throw out the ceremonial
first pitch. The ballpark in Milwaukee was a much more
ambitious construction project than PNC Park in Pittsburgh. The
Brewers' new home has a retractable roof with seven panels that weigh a
combined 12,000 tons (yet are able to open or close in only 10 minutes).
This photo shows the mammoth panels gliding together following a game in
July. The Brewers make quite a production of this, with classical music
blaring and the fans rooting the roof on! As you no doubt know, three workmen lost their
lives in July of '99 when a giant crane -- being used to lift the materials to
build those panels -- crashed. In an eerie coincidence, three workers also
lost their lives while the Brewers previous home, County Stadium, was originally
being built 47 years earlier. The tragic event at Miller Park in '99 left such a mess that the
completion of the stadium was pushed back a full year. The 43,000-seat
facility cost about $380 million to build and equip, with the money coming
jointly from the Brewers and a bump in sales taxes. The design team for
the project included HKS, NBBJ and Eppstein Uhen . . .
CHICAGO
There were some changes on the South Side of Chicago when the White Sox played
their home games in 2001. The team spent $8 million making renovations to the
oft-maligned New Comiskey. Changes include additional bleacher seats,
reducing the distance down the foul lines and shortening the outfield
wall. "I think we're trying to do what our fans want to get them back
and keep them," General Manager Ron Schueler  said. There might be
even more changes to the White Sox' home for 2002 . . .
CINCINNATI Fans
who attended Reds' home games in 2001 were in for a surprise. Cinergy Field is
no longer a "doughnut" stadium with plastic grass. First, in
order to make way for the Reds' Great American Ballpark, due to open in 2003
(see more below), construction crews had to remove a massive slice of the old
stadium -- leaving the remaining seats to have a view of the city and of the
new-parks' construction site. In all, 14,000 seats were removed. Second, the Astroturf was replaced with real
honest-to-goodness Kentucky bluegrass. "The thing that we are
championing here is that Cinergy Field is a ballpark now. It is not a
stadium," observed Declan Mullin, Director of Stadium Operations for the
Reds. The construction site in the foreground of this photo is the new
ballpark, while the newly reconfigured Cinergy Field is to the right.
That's the Ohio River flowing beyond the construction.
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